Evaluation in natural science teaching, official documents, and academic literature: a theme with many open questions

Abstract

This work consists of a literature and legislation review on the evaluations of learning focusing on the Natural Science Education in science education. We critically analyzed the national and subnational (Rio Grande do Sul state) Brazilian legislation on the subject and journal articles on science education and education. The study reveals that there is a certain consensus in the literature about the predominance of traditional evaluation focused on written exams, linked to the goal-oriented model. The legislation recognizes that the evaluation of learning used at school is distancing itself from official guidelines, which prefers the qualitative and formative aspects over the quantitative ones. Literature and legislation converge in the direction that teachers need to diversify their instruments to achieve a formative evaluation It is also questioned the debate about the possibilities and limitations of external evaluations and the proposal of the National Educational Plan approved in 2014 to include science education in Saeb; it is possible to affirm that very little of this debate actually arrives in classrooms.

Learning assessment; Science education; Educational system evaluation